Rural and Environment

In the news: UK waste strategy

December 18, 2018 by Roseanna Cunningham No Comments | Category Environment, Uncategorized

You will no doubt have seen that many news outlets are running the a story this morning that the UK Government has published its Resources and Waste Strategy, which places more responsibility on manufacturers and producers to pay recycling and disposal costs.

A number of the strategy’s proposals have already been implemented by the Scottish Government, including our ambitious Deposit Return Scheme proposals, which are already at a more advanced stage. There has also been significant progress in rolling out food waste collections in Scotland in recent years.

The current producer responsibility schemes operate across the UK by agreement with the devolved governments. The Scottish Government has been engaged with the UK Government for a number of months on options for reform and these discussions are ongoing.

Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said:

“Our expert panel on Environmental Charges and Other Measures is continuing to look at how we can tackle our use of disposable items, including plastic packaging.

“We’ve been working hard on measures to eliminate non-recyclable, single-use plastics and other problem materials. We’ve banned the manufacture and sale of rinse-off personal care products containing plastic micro-beads, and following public consultation have drafted legislation to ban the manufacture and sale of plastic-stemmed cotton buds.

“These measures outlined will help us to eliminate these sources of unnecessary plastic – I’m pleased to see that industry has already risen to the challenge of cotton buds and look forward to working with stakeholders to identify further reductions in waste to protect our environment.”

Tags: DEFRA, Deposit Return Scheme, food waste, plastic, Scotland, Scottish Government

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